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Giuseppe Capogrossi — Superficie CP/555
Giuseppe Capogrossi

Superficie CP/555

1962

Superficie CP/555 presents Capogrossi's signature pictographic language at its most elemental and commanding. Against a warm, ochre-toned ground, a single large black form dominates the picture plane, its forked and arched configuration simultaneously evoking a comb tooth, an archaic letter, and a prehistoric glyph. The mark is applied with assured gestural weight, the brushwork loose enough at its edges to reveal the texture of the canvas support beneath, yet monumental in its overall presence. The creamy ground, achieved through the layering of tempera on paper subsequently mounted to canvas, lends the surface a quiet luminosity that throws the deep black of the central form into sharp relief. In the lower left, smaller subsidiary marks appear as a kind of annotation or echo, reinforcing the sense that Capogrossi conceived his compositions as quasi-linguistic systems rather than purely formal exercises. By 1962, Capogrossi had been refining his vocabulary of segno, or sign, for over a decade, and Superficie CP/555 demonstrates the mature confidence of that sustained investigation. The forked form had become his personal hieroglyph, a unit of visual meaning capable of infinite variation through scale, density, repetition, and spacing. Here he resists the allover patterning found in many larger canvases, instead isolating the motif at an intimate scale that rewards close looking. The decision to work in tempera on paper imparts a particular intimacy and directness, connecting the work to the tradition of works on paper as sites of experimental distillation rather than mere study. Capogrossi occupied a distinctive position within postwar European abstraction, associated with the Gruppo Origine alongside Alberto Burri and Ettore Colla, yet ultimately pursuing a singular path that bridged the gestural energy of Art Informel and the structural concerns of sign-based painting. Works of this compact format and medium carry significant art historical weight, offering collectors a concentrated example of his mature practice in a format that speaks directly and without mediation. Superficie CP/555 is a work of exceptional presence relative to its modest dimensions, demonstrating how Capogrossi transformed a single obsessive mark into an endlessly generative instrument of visual inquiry.

Medium
Tempera on paper applied on canvas

🔨 Auction Lot

Martini Studio d'Arte: Modern And Contemporary Art

June 10, 2026

Estimate: €8,000 to €12,000

Lot 39

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About this work

Giuseppe Capogrossi, Superficie CP/555, 1962

Superficie CP/555 presents Capogrossi's signature pictographic language at its most elemental and commanding. Against a warm, ochre-toned ground, a single large black form dominates the picture plane, its forked and arched configuration simultaneously evoking a comb tooth, an archaic letter, and a prehistoric glyph. The mark is applied with assured gestural weight, the brushwork loose enough at its edges to reveal the texture of the canvas support beneath, yet monumental in its overall presence. The creamy ground, achieved through the layering of tempera on paper subsequently mounted to canvas, lends the surface a quiet luminosity that throws the deep black of the central form into sharp relief. In the lower left, smaller subsidiary marks appear as a kind of annotation or echo, reinforcing the sense that Capogrossi conceived his compositions as quasi-linguistic systems rather than purely formal exercises. By 1962, Capogrossi had been refining his vocabulary of segno, or sign, for over a decade, and Superficie CP/555 demonstrates the mature confidence of that sustained investigation. The forked form had become his personal hieroglyph, a unit of visual meaning capable of infinite variation through scale, density, repetition, and spacing. Here he resists the allover patterning found in many larger canvases, instead isolating the motif at an intimate scale that rewards close looking. The decision to work in tempera on paper imparts a particular intimacy and directness, connecting the work to the tradition of works on paper as sites of experimental distillation rather than mere study. Capogrossi occupied a distinctive position within postwar European abstraction, associated with the Gruppo Origine alongside Alberto Burri and Ettore Colla, yet ultimately pursuing a singular path that bridged the gestural energy of Art Informel and the structural concerns of sign-based painting. Works of this compact format and medium carry significant art historical weight, offering collectors a concentrated example of his mature practice in a format that speaks directly and without mediation. Superficie CP/555 is a work of exceptional presence relative to its modest dimensions, demonstrating how Capogrossi transformed a single obsessive mark into an endlessly generative instrument of visual inquiry.

Medium
Tempera on paper applied on canvas
Year
1962
Seen at
Martini Studio d'Arte

Related themes

Abstract Art, Ochre And Black, Avant Garde, European Artist, Mid Century Modern, Tempera, Pictographic, Male Artist, Gestural Mark Making, Modernist, Mixed Media, Italian Artist, Sign And Symbol, Black And White, Textural Surface, Postwar Art, Arte Informale, Minimalist Composition, Works On Paper, Intimate Scale, Abstract Calligraphy